Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Stay on top of the latest market trends
Subscribe to Axios Markets for the latest market trends and economic insights. Sign up for free.
Sports news worthy of your time
Binge on the stats and stories that drive the sports world with Axios Sports. Sign up for free.
Tech news worthy of your time
Get our smart take on technology from the Valley and D.C. with Axios Login. Sign up for free.
Get the inside stories
Get an insider's guide to the new White House with Axios Sneak Peek. Sign up for free.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Want a daily digest of the top Denver news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Want a daily digest of the top Des Moines news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Want a daily digest of the top Twin Cities news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Want a daily digest of the top Tampa Bay news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Want a daily digest of the top Charlotte news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Axios' Ina Fried with Microsoft President Brad Smith. Photo: Ed Jay Photography for Churchill Club
On Monday, I asked Microsoft president Brad Smith, who is all too familiar with antitrust battles, whether he thinks the antitrust investigation caused Microsoft to miss shifts in technology, such as the iPhone.
Why it matters: Microsoft wasn't broken up, as one judge initially ordered, but it spent years battling in court and ultimately was forced by regulators around the globe to pay fines and offer Windows customers in some places the ability to choose a different browser.
- "There's a lot that I think people can learn from our mistakes, our travails," he said during our interview at the Churchill Club.
Smith recalled a Microsoft director pointing out that there was an opportunity cost to continuing to fight the government.
- "Every hour you spend doing one thing is an hour you don't spend doing something else," he said:
"That's sort of like the laws of physics somewhere. If you have to spend a lot of time dealing with an antitrust issue, it will mean that there is a lot of time that you are not spending on other things. And you can't possibly know in advance what those other things would be. "
"It's only a decade later when you see the parts of technology that maybe passed you by. And you can ask yourself, what if? What if I wasn't spending all that time in a deposition or getting ready for it or dealing with the controversy around this? Would I have recognized this other shift? Would I have done a better job of jumping on it? "
As for the current antitrust situation, Smith noted that things are different from when Windows was under antitrust scrutiny.
- "At one level, I think you could look at it and say, hey, a world with multiple platforms by definition is more competitive than a world where everybody is focused on one," he said.
Yes, but: Smith noted that today's giants exert more control over their platforms than Microsoft did over Windows in its heyday. "
- "You know, we at Microsoft were never smart enough to think of a thing called an app store ... anybody could always put any app that they wanted onto Windows."
The bottom line: When evaluating regulators' concerns, tech companies have to think not only about the monetary penalties or conduct remedies that are on the table, but also about how fighting regulators — or not fighting them — will affect the company's ability to innovate.
Go deeper: Watch the full video of the event here